L.A. County should make most of second chance with rehabilitation efforts: Guest commentary

Second chances are hard to come by. Consider the struggle of one of my clients, Shereece. Released from state prison after serving her sentence, she worked with counselors, lawyers and other service providers to get a Social Security card, build job skills and regain custody of her children. Two days before Thanksgiving, her bank account was closed without warning or explanation, and penalty fees began to eat away at the tiny but precious savings she’d built since her release from prison. Because Shereece has a past conviction, she also has been denied work, public housing, food stamps and other forms of help.

But Shereece is one of the lucky few. She has access to knowledgeable people who are fighting on her behalf to restore her life as a person, a mom and a member of the community. She is among friends who understand how it feels to be released from prison with nothing but $200 in “gate money” and the clothes on her back.

Unfortunately, thousands of others are locked in a revolving door: incarcerated, on parole and arrested again — at a huge cost to everyone. Every day, Los Angeles County spends a staggering $100,000 to incarcerate people convicted of minor, nonviolent crimes like drug possession and forgery. Women are a big part of this nonviolent but nonetheless expensive prison population.

Sheriff Lee Baca’s appointed successor, former Orange County Undersheriff John Scott, has an opportunity to make things right.

Since 2011, Los Angeles County has received $398 million to reduce prison overcrowding, costs and recidivism through the Public Safety Realignment initiative of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Other counties have used similar funding to foster recovery and a successful return to community for people leaving prison.

I wish this were the case in Los Angeles County. Our Board of Corrections has failed to adopt rehabilitation programs that are proven to reverse recidivism. But it’s not too late. In fact, three federal judges just granted California a two-year extension on the deadline to reduce overcrowding in state prisons.

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I believe in second chances. After my 5-year-old son was hit and killed by a car, and I was unable to get the help I needed to cope with overwhelming grief, I numbed the pain with alcohol and drugs. Soon, I was spinning through the same revolving door known to Rebecca and many more. Prison. Parole. Repeat. Finally, I received treatment and began to rebuild my life.

In time, I bought a house that I opened to other women coming out of prison. Packed with bunk beds, paperwork and hope, that house was the foundation for A New Way of Life Reentry Project, which incorporated as a nonprofit in 1998.

Since then, A New Way of Life has transitioned more than 700 women out of the criminal justice system and reunited more than 150 mothers with their children. We continue to provide women a safe place to stay, along with case management, addiction counseling, legal services, leadership development and skill-building opportunities.

For about one-third of the cost of incarceration, seven out of 10 women in our program return to their families and community instead of jail. What we do is neither proprietary nor cost-prohibitive. It’s a model for what Los Angeles and other counties should be doing.

But I am just one person. We are just one program, helping hundreds — not the thousands locked in an endless, expensive cycle. Yet there is hope: This cycle is being broken through practical approaches elsewhere in the state. Imagine what Los Angeles County would save in costs and human capital if we invested realignment funds in system-wide rehabilitation programs.

Imagine what we could be if we owned up to our responsibility and our potential as a community. We can — with improved strategies and increased investment for the reintegration of formerly incarcerated women.

Our mistake is repeating the past. Rebecca and I can attest to this fact. Along with all who fight to restore lives lost to repeat convictions, we can also point to the power of second chances. They are rare but real, Los Angeles, and this is ours.

Susan Burton is founder and executive director of A New Way of Life Reentry Project and a 2014 recipient of The James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award. She has been a fellow in the Violence Prevention Initiative of The California Wellness Foundation and was appointed to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Little Hoover Sentencing Reform Commission.